NL East

Last week the lady behind the counter at Wawa told me people are always nice when the sun shines and the Phillies win.

Well, it’s a great time to work at Wawa.

Chase Utley tied Boog Powell's record on Wednesday for most consecutive postseason games reaching base. Utley walked in the first inning of the Phillies' NLCS clinching 10-4 victory over the Dodgers to reach base for the 25th consecutive playoff game, equaling the record Powell held alone for 38 years.

Boog established the original mark before there was even a League Championship Series much less a Division Series.

So far, we've looked at two names that the Atlanta Braves could pursue this offseason in Prince Fielder and Juan Rivera .

We'll continue in the Juan Rivera-Esq direction (as in realistic options) with this piece.

Now, I know that I made a small case against him in the Juan Rivera article, but today we are going to talk about Texas Rangers outfielder Nelson Cruz.

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cliff Lee continued to enjoy his maiden voyage in the National League and the Phillies' bats provided him ample run support in leading the defending World Series champions to an 11-0 Game Three victory and a 2-1 edge over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.

By the end of the fifth inning with the Phillies up by eight, I was thinking, this game can’t be over fast enough . But after the eighth, when the home team added three more to the score, the Dodgers were thinking the same thing.

The signs said it all.

“City of BrotherLEE Love”

One morning my kid wandered into the kitchen half asleep and accidentally sent my favorite coffee mug to its demise on my hard ceramic tiles. Okay, accidents happen. But this wasn’t just any mug. This was a 32-ounce monstrous work of art I earned from an overpriced jousting show at the Excalibur in Las Vegas on one of our rare real vacations.